Table-fork cleaner.



No. 627,622. Patented June 27, I899.

. P. MEYER.

TABLE FORK CLEANER. (Application filed Aug. 12, 1898.)

No. 627,622. Patented June 27, I899.

P. MEYER.

TABLE FORK CLEANER.

(Application filed Aug. 12, 1898.)

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

6N0 Model.)

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PATENT PETER MEYER, OF COLOGNE-NIPPES, GERMANY.

TABLE-FORK CLEANER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 627,622, dated June 27, 1899.

Application filed August 12, 1898. erial No. 68 8,465. (No model.)

the like, that housemaids called for cleaning the various covers in use every day do not accomplish this work with great care, and very often there remain between the teeth of the table-forks articles of food which are removed with great difficulty 011 account of the small opening between the teeth of these table-forks. Besides the uncleanliness the use of these table-forks thus insufficiently cleaned is very injurious to health, said tableforks being capable of transmitting contagious maladies. r The above-mentioned inconveniences are done away with by means of the apparatus forming the object of the present invention and allowing the table-forks to be perfectly cleaned by causing the teeth thereof to pass between the coils of a spiral spring advisably adjusted and covered over with a cleaning substance, as more fully described and claimed hereinafter.

In the accompanying drawings a practical form of construction of the improved tablefork cleaner is shown, in which- Figure 1 is a front elevation of the device, and Fig. 2 a side elevation of the same. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the device, showing the cleaning material applied to the spring.

In the figures similar reference-letters denote similar parts.

a is a supporting-frame provided with a handle.

6 indicates spheres for securing the spring hereinafter mentioned.

0 is a metallic rod threaded at its lower end and joined .to spheres b.

(l is an adj Listing-nut for the spring.

e' are caps holding the spring, f the spiral spring, and g a guiding-stem for the spring. (Shown in dotted lines.)

The supporting-frame a of the device is made of any suitable material and provided with a handle. On the frame a are secured, by means of screws and a seat for each sphere, the spheres h, each having in it a socket. Thesespheres project from the center of each end of the front of the frame perpendicularly to the same, and the said sockets are sunk in the spheres to face each other and be in the same line. Into these sockets are set the ends of the rod 0, threaded at its lower end, for screwing a hand-nut d thereon. The rod 0 is surrounded by the spiral spring f. The upper end of the rod 0 has on it a cap 6 corresponding to the cap 6 below and resting against the sphere b as the cap e rests against the nut d. The said spiral spring f has its ends applied against the cap e and cap 6, allowing said lower cap e to be brought nearer the cap 6 or to be removed therefrom, thus serving to give to the coils of the spring an opening between them corresponding to the opening of the teeth of the table-fork to be cleaned. The spiral spring f is held by the spring-stem g, arranged parallel with the rod 0 within the coils of the said spring, the ends of said springstem g extending into cavities made, respectively, in the upper and lower sides of the supporting-frame a. The said spring-stem passes through the caps e and prevents the spiral spring from bending and escaping from said caps when packing and cleaning.

The device is used as follows: First, the spiral spring f is adjusted by means of screwing the nut until the openings between the coils correspond with the openings between the teeth of the table-fork to be cleaned. Then the cleaning material is placed upon the spring and the table-forks are rubbed uponthis material, so that the spring-coils penetrate between the teeth of said table-fork to clean the inner faces thereof. A

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is r 4 1. In a tool for scouring cutlery, the combination of a spiral springarranged and adapted to allow the blade or tines of a knife or fork to be rubbed backward and forward between its coils, and-cleaning material applied to and covering said coils, substantially as set forth.

2. In an implement for scouring cutlery, the combination of a frame with .a spiral spring mounted thereon, caps for the ends of the said spring means for adj usting one of the said caps to compress or relax the said spring, the other cap remaining stationary, and cleaning material applied to and covering said spring, substantially as set forth.

3. In combination with aframe and a screwthreaded rod mounted parallel thereto in attachments of the said frame, a spiral spring surrounding the said rod, a pair of caps at the ends of the said spring and a nut turning on the threads of the said rod to force one of the said caps against the said spring for (30111- pressing the same at will, substantially as set forth.

4. In a table-fork cleaner, the combination of a frame, provided with a handle, two spheres, each having a seat secured to said frame and provided with sockets opposite each other, a rod threaded at its lower part the ends of said rod being located in the holes of said spheres, a hand-nut, screwed on said rod, two caps traversed by said rod and arranged respectively, one below the upper sphere, and the other above the hand-nut, a spiral spring surrounding said threaded rod and pressed by means of the hand-nut between said eaps to cause the openings between its coils to correspond with the openings between the teeth of the fork to be cleaned, said spring being covered with cleaning material, the fork being rubbed thereon, and a spring-stem g attached to said spring and serving to hold it in place substantially as set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have signed my name in presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

PETER MEYER.

Witnesses:

WILLIAM H. MADDEN, J. MARTINEZ. 

